Although the relocation of some of these stations will surely inconvenience a small group of people, taken as whole, the expansion of the system is a most welcome development. The move westward further into the Annex just makes sense, as does having a station by the Distillery District.

In addition to the relocation of these stations, BIXI will also expand the dock at Phoebe Ave and Spadina avenues. Because the reason cited for the relocation efforts has to do with snow removal, all of the work is expected to be completed by the end of next week. As I said last time, though, one hopes that the bike-sharing program will study the changes and consider the keeping the system in this expanded state on a permanent basis.

What do you think of the changes? Is there an area in the city that you think could desperately use a BIXI station that doesn't have one?

Update (3:40 p.m.):

Snow removal isn't the only reason the stations are being moved. According to a press release, "BIXI Toronto worked closely with its partner, the city of Toronto, to study the performance of each station and decided to relocate stations with a low level of use to busier locations....These relocations will allow users to benefit from a larger service area."

Also worth noting from the press release is that BIXI is now up to 3936 members. That's not bad for a service that's only 6 months old.

Discussion

17 Comments

Expansion has to happen for BIXI to succeed. Of course, if it's expansion only through relocation, thinning out the stations, in the long-term that will fail. Hopefully in the spring they will fill in the stations that are moving, in addition to adding more. If you're trying to get young tourists on board, clearly expansion down queen west up ossington and then back east along college/dundas is vital.

I think adding some "destination stations" during the busier summer months would be a good idea. High Park, Cherry Beach and Kew Gardens are some examples of where I'd put some stations, without needing to put stations everywhere in between. Of course, this would pose a problem when a station is full or empty and there wasn't another station somewhere close by to utilize as a substitution.

Good to see the CNE one shifted to Distillery District. It should've moved closer to the condos that went up east of Fort York instead, though (author's disclosure: I don't live there). I agree with John above that expansion is key, but to make Bixi attractive for tourists there are many other things to fix. In my personal experience, tourists I've encountered would've loved to use it, but found the Bixi system confusing and the 30-minute limit restrictive. Another drawback for the tourists is the lack of a phone at the stations. What do you do when something didn't work as intended and you don't have a cell phone (read: many tourists)? I personally got burned by this in London Cycle Hire, on which I wasted £5.

I agree with John; for Bixi to be successful, it has to expand - and that doesn't mean simple making the area bigger whilst keeping the number of stations the same.

I also understand why the CNE station is being moved (although I grieves me, as the husband of an exhibitor, that they should choose to do it now, in the middle of the One of a Kind show - when we'd like to get as many people to the place as possible... could they not have waited a week until all the major shows of the season were over?

On the other hand, as David says, the Distillery one is a good idea and the CNE station would have been better off further east, yes, making the area smaller - but making the station scloser together again.

As a sometime user (winter mostly, when I don't want my own bike exposed to the salt!), I think more will be better. There's a critical mass of bikes and stations that you have to hit before generally people will sign up. I know many people who'd love to use it but only if there were stations outside the Downtown core (read The Beach, High Park, Parkdale etc).

The one going in at Brunswick and Bloor has some problems. First, they cut down about 6 post-and-rings to make room. When they're cut down, they're rendered useless. In essence, the public loses out to a private company. And these post-and-rings were well-used. And there's a city wide shortage of them.
This location is essentially The Brunswick's 'smoke pit' so if you go to pick up a bike there on the mornings of Friday, Saturday and Sunday, expect to find puke on the bikes and/or vandalized.

Sigh. The three stations that I use the most, all around my office, are going away (Peter/Queen, Duncan/Queen, Richmond/University). There will still be a couple of stations in the vicinity, but there was already a problem with those stations getting starved. I've had to walk from station to station to get a bike a few times and I expect it will just get worse.